This is a study of the artistic and political context that led to the
production of a truly exceptional Byzantine illustrated manuscript.
Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, codex grec 54 is one of the
most ambitious and complex manuscripts produced during the Byzantine
era. This thirteenth-century Greek and Latin Gospel book features
full-page evangelist portraits, an extensive narrative cycle, and unique
polychromatic texts. However, it has never been the subject of a
comprehensive study and the circumstances of its commission are unknown.
In this book Kathleen Maxwell addresses the following questions: what
circumstances led to the creation of Paris 54? Who commissioned it and
for what purpose? How was a deluxe manuscript such as this produced? Why
was it left unfinished? How does it relate to other Byzantine
illustrated Gospel books?Paris 54's innovations are a testament to the
extraordinary circumstances of its commission. Maxwell's
multi-disciplinary approach includes codicological and paleographical
evidence together with New Testament textual criticism, artistic and
historical analysis. She concludes that Paris 54 was never intended to
copy any other manuscript. Rather, it was designed to eclipse its
contemporaries and to physically embody a new relationship between
Constantinople and the Latin West, as envisioned by its patron. Analysis
of Paris 54's texts and miniature cycle indicates that it was created
at the behest of a Byzantine emperor as a gift to a pope, in conjunction
with imperial efforts to unify the Latin and Orthodox churches. As
such, Paris 54 is a unique witness to early Palaeologan attempts to
achieve church union with Rome.

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About Me

I am the editor of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies; author of Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy; a tenured associate professor and chairman of the Dept. of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana; and a subdeacon of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church (UGCC) resident in the Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago.